Appareled Like the Spring
by Allekha
Summary: The night before Onsen on Ice, Yuuri and Yuri choose their costumes. After Yuri goes to bed, though, Victor is happy to let Yuuri try on as many of them as he wants, and enjoys watching him dress up.


A/N: Written for Robin_Hoods for the Chocolate Box 2017 exchange.

This fic brought to you by squinting at Yuuri's posters in screencaps and a few real-life skaters with lovely costumes.

* * *

It took Yuri a while to find his _Agape_ costume, but it was easy to see when he had found it; he dropped the one he was holding (and which he had been roundly criticizing for its colors) and drifted over to one that that Victor remembered well. Victor didn't think that mesh made to look see-through was really the best match for agape, but the white color and the feathery accents would work. Yuri studied it carefully for several seconds. "I want this one."

"Okay. It should fit you, but go try it on to make sure first."

Yuri nodded and left the room, returning several minutes later. His usual bluster was toned down somewhat, and he crossed his arms across his chest defensively as he stared in the mirror. "It looks fine."

"There's a couple of places it will need to be adjusted for the rest of the season, but it should be good for tomorrow." Yuri was shorter than he had been at that age, and while Victor had also been slender, their frames weren't built exactly the same. "It suits you," he added with a smile.

Yuri scowled at his reflection. "Yeah, whatever. I'm going to bed."

By which he presumably meant 'I'm going to go lay in bed and surf the web and listen to music for a few hours and maybe call my grandpa if it gets quiet enough', but with that he left the room and loudly slid the door shut behind him, leaving Victor alone with Yuuri.

Yuuri, who had long since picked out the costume he wanted, was still sorting through the mounds of clothing that surrounded him. Victor watched him pick up an earlier outfit from his Juniors days – far too small to fit any of them, even Yuri – and smooth it over his lap, a quiet smile on his lips. The one he had picked out for _Eros_ was neatly folded and set off by itself. Victor wondered what he was thinking about.

"Yuuri," he murmured, shifting closer. Yuuri jumped as though he had forgotten Victor was there. "You chose your costume awfully quickly. Are you sure there's nothing else you might want here?"

"Is there something wrong with the one I picked?"

"No. I think it's a good choice for your program – I just worry if it would fit you. You're smaller than I am now, but it was made for a sixteen-year-old, not an adult man."

"It seemed like it would be fine," said Yuuri, reaching over and picking it up. He unfolded it and held it up to his shoulders, and when Victor made a motion, moved the costume in his lap aside and stood up with the one he had chosen. True, from this perspective it didn't seem like a bad fit. "I can try it on to make sure."

Victor nodded and busied himself with neatening some of the costumes Yuuri hadn't gotten to yet from their messy piles, trying not to stare too much as Yuuri stripped and pulled the costume on. For someone who had been happy to pole-dance almost naked at the banquet and clutch at Victor with only a few more pieces of clothes on, not to mention all the times they had shared the hot spring so far, Victor was mystified to find he was suddenly almost shy. Earlier today, for example, he had needed to correct one of Yuuri's positions by hand when demonstration didn't get the point across, and Yuuri had gone tense and jumpy under his touch in a way that was impossible to miss.

When Yuuri was dressed, though, Victor let himself stare all he wanted. The costume fit Yuuri _very_ well, and he looked very, very good in black. "You can move alright?" Yuuri did a series of brief stretches that pulled the material even more tightly against his waist, his shoulders, but it didn't hamper his movements at all. They might want to get the trousers re-hemmed, but other than that, Victor couldn't see anything to adjust.

"I usually comb my hair back in competition," Yuuri said, demonstrating with his fingers, though most of it fell out of place as he lowered his hands. (Victor knew, already; he had looked up every routine of Yuuri's that could be found on YouTube, and a few that were only available on this Japanese site he could barely navigate even with Google Translate.) Then he sank into the starting pose for his performance, but there was something different about the way he was doing it now, in costume, in front of the mirror, than when he did it in practice.

His hips were canted more, his shoulders twisted around further, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. He considered his reflection, eyes half-lidded, and Victor considered him.

He hadn't missed how Yuuri's eyes had sparkled when he said that the costume had been made to suggest both male and female at once, how his cheeks had flushed and his fingers had curled into the fabric and he'd clutched it close as he declared that he'd chosen it, before he'd had the chance to look properly for anything else.

"Yuuri?"

"Hm?"

"Tell me why you chose that one."

Yuuri's face lost that focus as he turned to look at Victor, his cheeks gaining a flush. He glanced down over the outfit, smoothed it down with his hands, and said, "I thought it fit the theme of _Eros_."

"And? There's something else, isn't there?" Victor edged closer; he was pretty sure that Yuuri's cheeks went redder. "You picked it out right away. I want to know what you were thinking, Yuuri."

Yuuri smoothed it down again, this time running one hand all the way down the ruffle. "I remember," he said, his voice gone quieter and slower, "the first time I ever saw you skating. It was from the Junior World's in Sophia, the one where you set the record, and you were wearing this, so when I saw it, I was thinking about that."

Right. Yuuri had recognized it right away. "Do you want it as a good-luck charm?" Victor asked. "Or was there something else? You could have chosen something that looks more like a wandering playboy, I have a couple that look more like suits."

"Well, _Eros_ is about the man chasing the beautiful woman, but it's also about the woman too, isn't it? How she plays back when he plays with her even if he breaks her heart in the end." Yuuri turned away, then, reached for the zipper to start taking the outfit off.

Victor, too, turned away, back to the piles of costumes. After a few moments, he picked up one and shook it, throwing out another question as he did so. "Do you want another one? For your free skate or your exhibition?"

"I'm already taking one."

"It's not like I'm using them," he said with a laugh. The laugh died as he took a closer look at what he was holding and shuddered. Even without the wrinkles from storage, it was one of his more regrettable costume choices, the colors at odds with each other and with his skin tone. He really should have listened to Yakov about how silly it looked. He threw it to the side and drew out another from his Juniors days that was less of an eyesore.

"That one's pretty," Yuuri said, coming to sit next to him.

Victor hummed and drew a finger along a ruffle that cut diagonally across the chest. The whole thing was floaty and, yes, pretty. He could remembered being disappointed that it wasn't covered in sparkles, but now he could appreciate the way the fabric itself and the many ruffles created an interesting texture. "Hey, Yuuri."

"Hm?"

"Tell me, which of my costumes are your favorites? Besides that one you chose."

He waited patiently to let Yuuri consider the question, though he must have some ideas about the answer already; Hiroko had mentioned something about a large poster collection featuring him, even if Yuuri's walls were now bare and Victor hadn't figured out where he was hiding them yet.

"I really like that one," Yuuri said at last. "But other than that, there was the one from... 2010, I think. It was the first season where you had short hair. Your short program costume was black and silver, and the free skate one was like a black suit and a white ruffled shirt? I liked both of those, actually."

Victor cast an eye about and spotted the end of a black sleeve with two rings of sparkling braid around the wrist. "Go on."

"And that one you wore for your exhibition skate a few years ago, the soft blue one with those flowers at the hem?"

"Oh, the water spirit one? What else?" It was already in one of the folded piles that Yuuri had made, but he could pull it out again.

"And the green one from 2009." That one was easy to spot; he didn't often wear green. "Also, I kind of liked that short program one from a couple of years ago, the white and blue one."

Victor wrinkled his nose. "Isn't that one a bit plain?"

"You don't usually wear more casual sorts of costumes. It was different."

And would definitely be too big for him, so unless Yuuri was understating how much he liked it, enough so to get it tailored down, that one was out. Good; Victor was sure that Yuuri should be in something that sparkled, and while the style had suited him, it wouldn't suit Yuuri. "Anything else?"

There was a pause. "The swan lake costume."

"Ah, of course." The one he had worn for his free skate in his second year in Seniors; it had become his most iconic look for years. It was one of Victor's favorites, too. He wasn't certain that the blue and silver would look good on Yuuri, but they could always try it. This one, too, was in a folded pile, set on top. "Which one do you want to try on first?"

"Try on...? All of them?"

"Most of them, anyway."

"It's kind of late."

Victor found his phone and checked the time. "Not really. You'll have plenty of time to sleep before the competition." Yuuri made a noise he couldn't parse, and he looked up in confusion. "Do you not want to try wearing them?"

To his relief, Yuuri shook his head. "No, I want to, it's just... I'll take care of it later."

Victor sprang up and started collecting together everything Yuuri had picked out (save for the one that wouldn't fit him). He tossed the first costume he got his hands on (the one based on a black suit) to Yuuri and pulled out the others as Yuuri started to get changed.

Yuuri was already finished and tugging at the sleeves by the time he dumped them all out by the mirror. Victor had thought about Yuuri in a suit a lot – Yuuri in a _black_ suit, preferably, or _maybe_ a white one, not that monstrosity he had been wearing at the banquet – and he was pleased to see that Yuuri did indeed wear a decent suit well.

"Here, let me." It was a little twisted; the lines going down the sides of the low-cut waistcoat were supposed to match with the same lines on the pants. The velvet was warm against his hands as he tugged it into place, almost too much so for a summer evening. He wondered if Yuuri was getting hot in it.

It was a pretty old-fashioned, romantic image overall, the white ruffles spilling over the waistcoat, the dark lines of Yuuri's legs disappearing into fake knee-high boots. He wouldn't have been surprised if Yuuri had given it a first look for _Eros_ , though it didn't match the song. It was too romantic, not enough sexy.

"Victor? Can I try another one on now? This one's hot and the cuffs itch."

"Do they?" He frowned and caught Yuuri's wrist, tried not to notice the way Yuuri instinctively jerked back. "Oh, I see, some of the stitching's come undone here at the hem." He let Yuuri's wrist go slowly, went to fetch the next costume.

Here was something that better suited _Eros_. Black, again, very fitted, with the silver braid on the narrow wrists and shiny silver for epaulets. The front was a mix of textures, wide glittery elastic and fake leather like spider legs converging on a medallion, from which hung tiny chains of dark beads that wrapped around and attached at the back of the opposite shoulders. Victor remembered the way they had swung out every time he had made a turn or stepped into a spin, clacking against each other so quietly only he could hear.

The chains got tangled as Yuuri put it on; Victor helped separate them again as Yuuri adjusted the rest of it. "Mm, I like this one on you," he said, watching him flush in the mirror. "You could have gone with this one."

"I don't think it would have worked as well with the story."

"No, but it would have worked. These," he said, tugging at one of the chains, "are reminiscent of bondage, and that's pretty _eros_."

"Right," mumbled Yuuri. He was fidgeting with the cuffs again. The sleeves clung tightly to every curve of his arm, and Victor wanted to wrap his fingers around the silver braid on the wrists. He knew how strong those wrists were, strong enough to support him and Chris on a pole and still grasp Victor plenty tight afterward, but in this material they look deceptively thin. "What's the next one?"

The green one was on top of the pile. Victor put a finger to his lips and frowned as soon as Yuuri had it most of the way on. This wasn't right. The shape was okay, a long tunic that everyone pretended was supposed to evoke a fairytale peasant but which really looked like a dress, but the color was not Yuuri's color at all. It was too yellow, and gave his skin an unpleasant green cast. A cool green would have worked better. Or red. He had something sort of like this one in red, buried back in the rest of the piles somewhere.

"Next one?" He crouched to pick up the water spirit outfit, but when he turned back, Yuuri hadn't moved to take off the green one.

"Give me a minute," he said. He pushed a few of the lower locks of his hair behind his ear, tilted his head. His lips were edging into a smile. "This one's nice."

"If you wear that color on the ice, you'll look like you're about to get sick."

Yuuri shot him a frown and proceeded to take much more than a minute before he changed again. Victor had thought that this type of blue would make him look ashen, but no; it was a huge improvement over the green.

The fabric of the water spirit costume was very soft, pale at the top and a medium blue at the hem, going even deeper at the end of the sleeves. Yuuri ran a hand over the gathers on the torso, carefully sewn together to look like ripples on a pond, and paused to press a wrinkle out of the cluster of water lilies that floated on the corner of the hem. The sleeves were loose and translucent, floating around his hands, and here and there a crystal caught the light and sparkled.

Victor reached out and adjusted the round neckline so it was further down Yuuri's shoulder. "Gorgeous," he whispered, and Yuuri must have agreed. He stepped away from Victor and also the mirror and did the best spin he was going to get on the rice mats. "What do you think?" Victor asked, not a little hopefully; it gave Yuuri a gentle look, very different from that of his _Eros_ costume.

"It feels really nice." He ran his hands down his torso again, then squinted at the mirror before moving back in front of it. After another look at himself, he reached back and started to undo the zipper. Victor sighed.

There was only one left, the swan lake costume. Victor picked it up more gently than he had the others; this was probably the best cared-for of all of his old costumes. The public had loved it, but so had he, and for years afterward he had still pulled it out once in a while to dress up just for himself. "Close your eyes."

"Okay?"

Victor helped him into it, then left him standing there to slip to the other side of the room and pick up the last piece. The blue roses were squashed out of shape from being stuffed away in storage. They needed to be steamed to regain their full splendor, but for now he simply shook the crown as hard as he could and took it back to Yuuri.

An idea had half-formed while he was watching Yuuri in the water spirit costume, and it now finished coming together. "Can I try something?"

"What?"

There was really no need for Yuuri to have that look on his face. "Don't look. Can you get me your foundation?"

Yuuri's eyes flickered underneath his still-closed eyelids, but he nodded and stood, only then opening his eyes. Victor searched out the rest of what he wanted while he waited for Yuuri to come back.

When Yuuri reappeared, he handed Victor the foundation and closed his eyes again. Victor opened it and made a face; there probably wasn't going to be time to buy something better tomorrow, but after that, he was definitely taking Yuuri somewhere better than a drugstore.

He applied it quickly and reached for the more fun things. He remembered looking up Japanese culture on his flight, remembered seeing pictures of the geisha and the dancers with the beautiful bright red at the outer corners of their eyes. He wondered if he could talk Yuuri into doing something like that for _Eros_ , red like the lining of the half-skirt, black to make his eyes even more lovely and sharp. For this, though, he borrowed the idea but went with blue. He softly feathered it around the outer edge of each eye and then added the black, not too sharp.

A few adjustments to the rest of his face, and Victor decided that was enough. "How does it look?"

Yuuri opened his eyes slowly and blinked them a few times before he turned to the mirror. And then he froze.

Victor remembered every adjective that had been applied to him in this costume. Beautiful. Graceful. Ethereal. He wanted to apply each and every one of them to Yuuri now. The blue was just the right color for him, and with that the silver looked fine; the flesh-tone fabric, which never came in a shade pale enough for Victor, actually matched him pretty well; it hugged his waist just as it had Victor's, and flared around his hips when any movement disturbed it.

Yuuri reached up and touched the crown with a look of shock on his face, and when his hand dropped, it only made it as far as his cheek. The other, the one wrapped in the flesh-tone fabric, brushed the feathers at the hem and made the whole bottom of the costume dance.

"Yuuri," Victor gasped. A thought struck his imagination, of Yuuri performing _Eros_ in this. The costume was completely inappropriate for the performance, of course, but he looked so lovely like this. And more than that was the thought of Yuuri wearing not just an old costume of his, but _this_ one, the iconic one, the pretty and pure and innocent costume, the one he loved so much, and using it to play the part of sexual love in front of everyone...

Victor realized he had gone hard. "Yuuri," he said again – it came out more like a moan – but Yuuri didn't give any sign of having heard him. He stepped closer to the mirror, touched it with his fingertips, murmured something that Victor couldn't quite make out. It might have been Japanese.

He stayed there for a long time, touching the crown, ruffling and smoothing the feathers, so long that Victor was able to re-manifest some of his self-control by the time he finally turned away from his reflection. "Thank you," he said, then took the crown off and looked at it, shifted it in his hands. His cheeks were pink.

"Do you want to keep it?" Victor asked, hoping he would say yes, but his heart sank as Yuuri shook his head slightly.

"That's okay."

"Are you sure?"

Yuuri tugged at the hem of the tunic again. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Thank you for letting me try it on. And the other ones, too, it was nice."

Victor took the crown from him and put it back, wondering why Yuuri hadn't said yes. He had clearly liked it; Victor had offered it to him for free. He didn't understand. He was already thinking of how to get Yuuri into it again, maybe after he figured out how to flip Yuuri's switch to see the version of him that had danced with him at the banquet.

Yuuri folded the costume with great care and set it and the others to the side. The room itself was a lost cause for tonight. They could deal with it after the competition.

"Here you go." Victor handed him the _Eros_ costume, watched Yuuri clutch it to his chest. "I can't wait to see you perform tomorrow."

Yuuri nodded. "I'll do my best," he said, a determined set to his lips. For a moment Victor thought he might say something further, but all that came out was a, "Good night," and then he left.

Alone in the room, Victor groaned and pushed his fringe back, then turned out the light and collapsed into his bed. The image of Yuuri in that costume, his eyes smokey, his figure strong and beautiful, as ethereal as Victor himself had ever been even without the long silver hair, was not going to leave his head tonight.


End file.
